Moonlight
by agimaru
Summary: Kagome kills a demon that had been terrorizing a town, but her night is far from over. Oneshot.


This is my first fic. I just wanted a crossover like this...

Enjoy!

* * *

Crunching and slurping echoed through the air, overtaking the sounds of sobs and whimpers.

"In the end, a young girl's flesh is the best, like he said!" The demon crowed, listening to the screams of his next meals. The girls he'd brought to his hideout cowered together, tears streaming down his face. They'd learned quickly he was too fast to escape from; demonstrated by his first meal's ill-fated attempt.

He licked his bloody lips, turning towards them, "Now who's—"

"Hey!" a voice called harshly behind him, stopping his advance. Before he could even focus on the person standing in the cave's entrance, a light sped towards his face, the last thing he ever saw.

* * *

Kagome sighed, lowering her bow. "Are you alright? I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner," she said, stepping over the flaking pile that used to be his body, stooping to pull the arrow out.

"Thank you for saving us," one of the girls said, huddled together with the rest of the captured, now wailing with fear and relief as they hugged each other.

She crouched in front of them and set her bag beside her, pulling out a pouch of medical supplies. "Is anyone wounded?" She asked, scanning them and getting out a poultice.

"Sora got a scrape trying to run...but Maiko..." at the name, the sniffling girls started to rise to sobs again. They looked to the floor by the pile of ash, where viscera and blood littered the ground.

"... I'm sorry..." she looked down, grimacing. She wished she'd gotten here sooner, but the locals had been reluctant to talk to a woman about the abductions other than to warn her off. She sighed before starting to speak again. "I have medicine, and jerky and water if you're hungry. It's not safe to go back while it's dark out, so we'll have to stay here until the sun comes out."

* * *

Once the girls were cared for, they fell asleep, still huddled together. Kagome sat closer to the mouth of the cave, checking her arrows and watching out for anyone approaching. She didn't want to keep them in this cave; the demon had obviously been hiding here for some time by the looks of the old blood and bone shards littering the floor. Luckily, the adrenaline wearing off had exhausted the girls so much that the macabre surroundings didn't keep them from getting some rest for their trek back in the morning.

She gasped, senses going off. 'The sutra I set up...!' She jumped from her seat and ran to the girls. "Wake up! Someone's coming." She shook the girls awake. "Listen," she said, kneeling in front of them, "I have a plan in case this person is dangerous..."

Quickly telling them what to do, she set down another sutra before going to block the entrance. Notching an arrow, she drew it just as the person rounded the corner of the path. "Stop right there!"

* * *

The crow said that people were disappearing in the towns near to a thick, shadowed forest. At first it was beggars, meaning no one really noticed it until quite a few people had been taken. Once people started disappearing out of their beds, though, panic rose. When young girls started disappearing, people got angry, and the towns started accusing each other.

The demon was getting careless, though. One of the girls it took wore a hairpin that was found on the path leading into the forest. After asking around, the inhabitants mentioned a cave near the west side of the thicket. That's where Kyojurou was headed, keeping alert for any attacks coming out of the trees. As he approached the area the villagers told him about, a cold tingle ran through him, unlike he'd ever felt before, for just a second, as if he'd passed through a waterfall. He skidded to a stop, looking around for any threats, but the forest was silent, with the chirps and twitters of nocturnal animals unafraid of a predator lurking amongst them. Something was strange.

'Is the demon really here?' Kyojurou thought, gripping the hilt of his katana. He continued on, not noticing the piece of paper stuck to the backside of the tree.

As he followed the path to the cave, he heard, "Stop right there!" Hand going to his sword, he took in the sight of a female figure aiming an arrow at him near the mouth of the cave he was looking for. Suspicious, as he was told this was out of the way of travelers, and of course no family near here would let their girls out so late.

"I'm looking for the abducted girls, miss! Do you happen to know anything about them?"

"Why do you want to know? And out so late, as well!"

"I am simply looking to bring them home, miss! But I must ask the same question," he stepped forward, watching her hand on the bowstring. He prepared to leap forward, tightening his grip on the hilt at his side.

Kagome's eyes shot to the movement. "Now!" She yelled abruptly, and a pellet came flying out of the darkness of the cave to burst into a cloud at his feet. The slayer jumped away quickly, but it was too late. He managed to land on his feet, then tumbled over face-first. 'Careless...of me...' His last thought was only if he would wake up again.

Kagome hesitantly walked over to the man's body, nudging him carefully with her foot to see if he was awake. Once she was satisfied, she sighed in relief. Sango's demon-strength sedative dispersed quickly, but it was made to catch even the fastest demons in its grasp. She looked him over quickly. "He's got such unique features...but he's not a demon..." she muttered, before turning to get some rope out of her pack.

* * *

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the rope binding his wrists uncomfortably behind his body. His body felt sluggish. "What..."

"You awake now?" He heard in front of him. Forcing his eyes open, he was met with the point of an arrow a foot from his face. The one holding it was a woman wearing a plain blue kimono with the sleeves tied up, a black undershirt up to her wrists. Her eyes had a fierce gleam, illuminated by the firelight nearby, and her hands were steady, showing her experience with the weapon.

'That's right... I was...' He looked behind her, surprised to see girls matching the descriptions he heard from the victims' families standing near the mouth of the cave, seemingly free to move as they pleased. He was tied up against a tree a few meters away, still within sight of the path. His cloak and sword lay together on the other side of the fire pit.

"This cave is pretty out of the way for a normal traveler. What are you doing out so late at night?" His attention was drawn back to the girl in front of him.

"That should be my question—!" He tried for his normal confident voice, but found his throat affected by the knockout powder, and cut himself off, coughing. Once he calmed down, he heard her say from closer, "Here, water." He turned to her, watching her drink from a waterskin and offer it to him. After a moments hesitation, he leaned forward and allowed her to give it to him. He felt his throat calm, and she pulled the spout away from him, backing away once more.

"That should be my question, miss! Forgive my rudeness, but shouldn't a woman like you be locked up at home? All the women of the surrounding towns are under curfew!" He started, trying to gauge his body's condition. Not wounded but his limbs felt heavy, obviously an effect of the knockout powder. He steadied himself, subtly using his breath to clear the remaining poison from his system.

"I'm not from this area. The people warned me when I passed through, but they didn't bother with me when I told them I was leaving."

"Is that so? Actually, I was sent to investigate the disappearances nearby, and the descriptions of the recent victims match the girls over there! Do you have anything to do with this?"

The girls flinched back behind the wall they were peeking around at his mention, and the woman in front of him straightened. "I found them, and killed their captor. We were waiting until morning to make the trip back."

Kyojurou leaned forwards, angling himself subtly as he felt the last of the sluggishness leave his body. "Really? Where is the body? I'll help you carry it back so the authorities can see the culprit."

"It's not here anymore," the black-haired woman said turning away. "I dragged it to the forest so it wouldn't attract predators." She poked at the fire, missing the dark expression that flashed across his face.

"You must have considerable strength to do such things! Unfortunately," he flexed with his inhale, tensing, "So do I!" at the last word, he snapped the ropes binding his wrists and leapt up. Before she could even react to the sound, he had grabbed his sword and leapt to attack her. She could do nothing but block his swing with a barrier, pushed up against the ground in an instant.

"I knew it, you're the demon, aren't you?" He strained briefly, glaring at the shimmering translucent dome between them before backing off, leaving her scrambling to stand.

"You know about demons?" She breathed, shocked. Though she encountered several of the bloodthirsty creatures as she traveled, she'd learned quickly that asking after them in seriousness only saw her labeled crazy by the locals. Few normal people believed they existed.

"That's right! And I also know that without the sun or a special weapon, you can't kill them! Your lies end here!" He said, winding up for another attack. This demon really had gotten reckless. That barrier must be it's blood art, but what was the point of tying Kyojurou up and not even wounding him? Was it underestimating him? And the sun was about to rise, but it wasn't trying to get away...was it that overconfident, that it could take care of him before it needed to hide? He gripped his katana more firmly. That would be it's last mistake.

Kagome, on the other hand, was reeling. The sun? Special weapons? What was he talking about? Kagome's encounters up till now had been short things. She would either be ambushed by a demon that met its end at her barrier, or kill one attacking someone else. Since they didn't know what she could do, they never strategized to avoid it, meaning Kagome had never observed much other than "they are not human" and "they attack and eat people" which was enough for her to fight them.

Sure she'd seen a few get cut by swords and axes and keep moving, but she chalked that up to their inhuman abilities; even Inuyasha survived a hole in the stomach, and he was only half demon. And the sun being fatal explained why she had never come across an attack in daytime better than any explanation she came up with. But this man seemed to know a lot more than she did, and the information coming alongside attacks from an undoubtedly dangerous opponent left her wrong footed. She could barely keep up with his speed, and his attacks felt like miniature sledgehammers raining on her skull. She desperately focused on the barrier, knowing that faltering under this would be fatal.

Trying to gather herself, she retorted, "But I did kill him! The girls in there saw me, if you just calm down—"

He cut her off with a swing that shook the ground, the resulting wind nearly putting out the fire. "I don't know what you're planning with those girls to have convinced them of your innocence, but it most certainly isn't anything good! I will end you here before you can hurt anyone else!"

Quickly Rengoku had realized that while she winced at the power of his attacks, her barrier seemed to still hold strong, so his strategy had switched to stalling for the sun to rise. Eventually, enough time passed, and as he wound up for his next attack, he felt the warmth of it's first rays touching his neck. He waited, eyes keen, but the demon didn't seem to fear the light creeping towards it through the leaves.

"You said the sun was fatal to demons, didn't you? Well, I'll prove I'm human!" She walked to the patch of light brightening under a gap in the canopy and let down her barrier. Her eyes sparkled in the sun as she stood, tense as if waiting for him to leap at her while she was vulnerable.

if it had been any of the other Hashira but Rengoku, she would have been killed before she knew it. But watching her stand there with a determined look in her eyes, he realized nothing happening was as simple as he assumed.

* * *

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment or point out mistakes. I feel like Kyojuro's characterization isn't the best? And that is the first fight scene I've ever written... lol.


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